Thrifty Dailies: My 11 Daily Frugal Habits 7 Years Later

My daily frugal habits started out as small changes I made to my daily routine that are now regular habits. When I first shared this list of daily frugal habits in 2007, I had a 3rd child in diapers. I think my oldest son had started his first year of Catholic school after being homeschooled for 7 years. My daily life revolved around being home with 4 kids, 3 of which were 4 and under.

11 Daily Frugal Habits 7 Years Later

No more breastfeeding and cloth diapers. Both saved us a ton of money on formula and diapers. I check our bank accounts weekly when I update our cash envelopes and running budget totals. I stopped making bread when my bread machine broke. The rest of the daily frugal habits remain the same.

Keep the heat set at 66 during the day and 52 at night when it’s cold.

Make my own bread. I have a bread machine that I purchased for $20 which I use for making sandwich bread, pizza dough, rolls, and brown bread. It also saves me time in that I’m not cleaning up the KitchenAid and the counter every time I want to make bread.

Make my own snacks as much as possible. I have an applesauce cake in the frig right now and I’m planning on making banana bread today to use up the old bananas.

Cook in batches and make meals from scratch. Earlier in the week, I cooked chicken quarters in water. The cooked meat and stock are sitting in the frig waiting for me to turn them into chicken stew today. Whenever we make dinner from scratch, we always try to do a double batch and stick the second batch in the freezer for days when the kids and I are on the go.

Check my bank accounts. I can catch mistakes I’ve made and keep an eye on our finances.

Cloth diapers. I’m on my third child in cloth diapers. Through the years I have had to buy some more diapers and covers, but overall, I’ve come out ahead. And since I hang my diapers to dry, even in the winter, I’m saving money on electricity.

Breastfeeding. Again, I’m on my third child for breastfeeding. The milk is always ready, portable and I get more sleep at night. What more can I say?

Composting. We save kitchen scraps, even in the dead of winter and dump them in a compost pile behind our house. This spring I have lots of wonderful compost to spread on my vegetable garden.

What are your daily frugal habits?

Meet Barb

Barb Hoyer has written 4364 posts.

After working in the fundraising world for over ten years, Barb is an avid runner, writer, photographer, parent volunteer, and lover of dictionaries and thesauruses. Wife to an engineer and mom to 5 kids, Barb lives in the suburbs of Philly. Her idea of relaxation is an afternoon on the couch with a stack of books.

I can’t believe how much we saved with breastfeeding and using cloth diapers. Some of my friend recently had babies and formula is expensive!
I would really like to try making my own bread. I will have to keep a look out for deals.Caitlin recently posted..etsy sale

These tips are great! I need to get better at using rags to clean in the kitchen… the amount of paper towels I use is so wasteful… and EXPENSIVE!!Lindsey @ sisterstosons.com recently posted..It Takes a Village

Wow, you’re amazing! I’m not sure I have daily frugal habits Trying to think…coming up blank, other than lots of cooking and stretching the meals, and leftovers are always lunch. Gina B recently posted..Put Down the Phone – and Pick Up Your Life

I know each house is different but 52 in our house would be ICY cold in some rooms. We need to insulate better I know that-but turning down the heat is one thing I don’t do.

One of the biggest money savers in our house has been weekly meal planning and one meal each week that cleans out the fridge prior to shopping. It allows us to use up anything that’s going bad and I will freeze things that can be used later (like overripe bananas).Kelly {the Centsible Life} recently posted..2014 Meal Plan and Printables

I’ve been attempting to make all of our bread. A friend gave me a bread machine that had been given to her. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well, but I haven’t given up. I’ll figure out the right recipe and baking schedule eventually. With 7 mouths to feed baking my own bread will save us a lot of money! Thanks for sharing via Family Fun Friday!Stephanie Kay recently posted..Enough

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